Something simple!?

After a long break from blogging, I have returned. The past week was as hectic as hectic could be, which coupled with my illness (mental or physical i decline to say) left me staggering, unfit for Blog Duty. But of present, my medical leave has thus expired and I will not attempt to go AWOL (absence without leave).

An apology to those who might be reminded about their unpleasant army experiences, but hey, I just had a bad one today. I went with no small degree of anxiety to the NS enlistment centre for my medical checkup, which I had so coincidentally placed on my longest schoolday. I really wasn't that enthusiastic about getting my arm poked by amateur medics who might be in foul moods, as I had gathered from the few sources who had already been "defiled". A further concern was the sighting of that precious red liquid fondly known as blood, as I have unfortunately inherited from my mother the fear of blood, in addition to many other things such as roller coasters and heights.

Well, as it went, I didn't faint! But I was much agonised when the doctor (thank goodness it wasn't some young immature punk) drew 3-4 test tubes of blood from me. Apparently, my mum has got this blood condition and so the doctor was taking an extra 3 tubes of blood as compared to the rest to test for iron deficiency. So, there goes, 2 pokes, and a considerable amount of blood lost. Guess I just have to eat more to make up for eat, right jeslin? So you should treat me to Canadian Pizza!

Anyway, I have decided to demote myself down to a lower Pes in terms of blog entry. Instead of a complicated puzzle like the previous, I shall give something much simpler and easier to solve. Nevertheless, it is really instructive to have such knowledge of pawn/ queen endings and hopefully this would be useful to my readers! Besides, it really isn't that simple, having stumped the entire RI and RJ chess club when Ashot showed it from my cool endgame book. There goes.

White to move and Draw!

Hah this one fritz can solve immediately, so lets give you 5 min to ponder it out! (think carefully: When is the opportune moment to capture that queen!)

Okay don't read on or it wouldn't be fun anymore. Only check your answers! Especially for RJ Chess Club people, just doing a few of these each week can help quite a bit!

Okays, if you're thinking 1. Rxe4 you're quite far off the mark. Any logical play from black will warrant him a win after that, such as 1. ... Kxe4 2. Kf2 Kd3 3. Ke1 Kc2 0-1. As such, the only logical possibility for white here would be to play Kf2. Now if black plays the blunder Qxe3, the game is simply drawn, with the black king unable to support his potential second wife (after the pawn promotes and takes the place as queen).

Therefore, the moves are more or less cut out for us. 1. Kf2 b4 2. Ke2 (do note that if here 2. Rxe4 Kxe4 3. Ke2 black can simply play 3. ... b3 gaining himself back the opposition and the game) 2. ... b3 This is now the crucial position of the puzzle. How does white draw??? Rxe4 is still impossible after Kxe4 Kd2 Kd4, so what is the magical move? Nope, certainly not Kd2, after which Qxe3 Kxe3 b2 just wins. 3. Kd1!! Yes, it might seem easy here but it wasn't so from the inital position, was it? Well, after Kd1 Qxe3 is stalemate and if any other move, white simply takes the queen and collects the lost pawn. (if you were in a game in playchess.com with the position, I would suggest you immediately premove Rxe4!)

I'll talk about something more interest next time, I promise!

Oh and anyway, a quote which i find quite amusing (its by my economics tutor)- "I hope that James Bond is the only Bond you know." when talking about bonds used to manipulate money supply.

Also would like to congratulate the New J1 Exco on a well planned CIP! The first day was a resounding success, with all the bubble tea being sold out within two blocks! Great work, people! Keep up the brilliant performance! =)